July 3
Events * 324 - Battle of Adrianople Constantine I defeats Licinius, who flees to Byzantium. * 987 - Hugh Capet was crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty which ruled France till the French Revolution in 1792. *1250 - Louis IX of France is captured by Baibars' Mamluk army at the Battle of Fariskur while he is in Egypt conducting the Seventh Crusade; he later has to ransom himself. *1608 - Quebec City founded by Samuel de Champlain. *1754 - French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces. *1767 - Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret. * 1767 - Norway's oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, is founded (first edition published this date). *1775 - American Revolutionary War: George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge. *1778 - American Revolutionary War: British forces massacre 360 men, women & children in the Wyoming Valley massacre. * 1778 - Prussia declares war on Austria. *1819 - The first savings bank in the United States (The Bank of Savings in New York City) opens. *1839 - The first state normal school in the United States, the forerunner to today's Framingham State College, opens in Lexington with 3 students. *1844 - The last pair of Great Auks is killed. *1848 - Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands) by Peter von Scholten. *1849 - The French entered Rome in order to restore Pope Pius IX to power. This would prove a major obstacle to Italian unification. *1852 - Congress establishes the United States's 2nd mint in San Francisco. *1863 - U.S. Civil War: The final day of the Battle of Gettysburg culminates with Pickett's Charge. *1866 - Austro-Prussian War is decided at the Battle of Königgratz, resulting in Prussia taking over as the prominent German nation from Austria. *1884 - Dow Jones published its 1st stock average. *1886 - The New York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand. *1890 - Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state. *1898 - Spanish fleet, led by Pascual Cervera y Topete, destroyed by the U.S. Navy in Santiago, Cuba during the Spanish-American War. *1928 - First color television broadcast in London. *1938 - World speed record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 126 mph.(203 km/h) *1944 - World War II: Minsk was liberated from Nazi control by Soviet troops during Operation Bagration. *1952 - Puerto Rico's Constitution is approved by the Congress of the United States. *1962 - The Algerian War of Independence against the French ends. *1970 - A British Dan-Air De Havilland Comet chartered jetliner crashes into mountains north of Barcelona, Spain killing 113 people. *1976 - Israeli commandos rescue 105 hostages at Entebbe Airport, Uganda during Operation Yonatan. *1977 - The Senegalese Republican Movement (MRS) is founded. *1979 - US President Jimmy Carter signs the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. *1986 - US President Ronald Reagan presides over the relighting of the renovated Statue of Liberty. *1988 - United States Navy warship [[Wikipedia:USS Vincennes (CG-49)|USS Vincennes]] shoots down Iran Air Flight 655 over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people aboard. *1988 - The Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey is completed, providing the second connection between the continents of Europe and Asia over the Bosporus. *1989 - Fitzgerald Inquiry released in Queensland. *1994 - The deadliest day in Texas traffic history, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Forty six people were killed in crashes. *2001 - A Vladivostok Avia Tupolev TU-154 jetliner crashes on approach to landing at Irkutsk killing 145 people. *2004 - Official opening of Bangkok's subway system. *2005 - The national law legalizing same-sex marriage takes effect in Spain. *2006 - Asteroid labeled as 2004 XP14 flies 432,308 km (268,624 miles) by Earth. *2007 - Ghana introduces new Ghanaian cedi currency. Births *1000 - Thomas Nightfarticus *1423 - King Louis XI of France (d. 1483) *1442 - Emperor Go-Tsuchimikado of Japan (d. 1500) *1530 - Claude Fauchet, French historian (d. 1601) *1676 - Leopold I, Prussian field marshal (d. 1747) *1683 - Edward Young, English poet (d. 1765) *1685 - Sir Robert Rich, British cavalry officer (d. 1768) *1728 - Robert Adam, Scottish architect (d. 1792) *1738 - John Singleton Copley, American painter (d. 1815) *1743 - Sophia Magdalena of Denmark, queen consort of Sweden (d. 1813) *1851 - Charles Bannerman, Australian cricketer (d. 1930) *1854 - Leoš Janáček, Czech composer (d. 1928) *1870 - Richard Bedford Bennett, 11th Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1947) *1875 - Ferdinand Sauerbruch, German surgeon (d. 1951) *1878 - George M. Cohan, American actor, director, singer and dancer (d. 1942) *1879 - Alfred Korzybski, Polish linguist (d. 1950) *1880 - Carl Schuricht, Polish-born German conductor (d. 1967) *1883 - Franz Kafka, Czech writer (d. 1924) *1900 - Alessandro Blasetti, Italian film director (d. 1987) *1903 - Ace Bailey, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1992) *1906 - George Sanders, Russian-born actor (d. 1972) *1908 - M. F. K. Fisher, American writer (d. 1992) * 1908 - Robert B. Meyner, American politician (d. 1990) *1913 - Dorothy Kilgallen, American columnist (d. 1965) *1917 - João Saldanha, Brazilian journalist and football manager (d. 1990) *1918 - S. V. Ranga Rao, South Indian actor (d. 1974) *1920 - Paul O'Dea, baseball player (d. 1978) *1921 - Susan Peters, American actress (d. 1952) *1924 - S. R. Nathan, 6th president of Singapore *1927 - Ken Russell, British director *1930 - Carlos Kleiber, Austrian conductor (d. 2004) * 1930 - Tommy Tedesco, American musician (d. 1997) * 1930 - Pete Fountain, American clarinetist *1933 - Edward Brandt, American doctor and public health official (d. 2007) *1935 - Harrison Schmitt, American astronaut and politician *1937 - Tom Stoppard, Czech-born, British playwright *1938 - Bolo Yeung, Hong Kong actor *1939 - László Kovács, Hungarian politician and diplomat *1940 - César Tovar, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 1994) * 1940 - Lamar Alexander, American politician * 1940 - Jerzy Buzek, Prime Minister of Poland * 1940 - Fontella Bass, American soul singer *1942 - Eddy Mitchell, French singer and actor * 1942 - Paco Stanley, Mexican TV personality (d. 1999) *1943 - Kurtwood Smith, American actor *1944 - Michel Polnareff, French singer and songwriter *1945 - Michael Cole, American TV actor *1946 - Leszek Miller, Prime Minister of Poland *1947 - Dave Barry, American writer * 1947 - Betty Buckley, American actress *1948 - Tarmo Koivisto, Finnish comics artist *1949 - Jan Smithers, American actress * 1949 - Johnnie Wilder, American singer (Heatwave) (d. 2006) *1950 - Sandra Lee, American writer and TV presenter *1950 - James Hahn, American politician * 1950 - Ewen Chatfield, New Zealand cricketer *1951 - Richard Hadlee, New Zealand cricketer * 1951 - Jean-Claude Duvalier, Haitian politician *1952 - Alan Autry, American football player and politician *1955 - Sanma Akashiya, Japanese television performer *1956 - Don Vito, American Viva La Bam castmember *1957 - Laura Branigan, American singer (d. 2004) *1958 - Matthew Fraser, Canadian-British journalist * 1958 - Aaron Tippin, American singer *1959 - Julie Burchill, British journalist and author * 1959 - Stephen Pearcy, American singer (Ratt) *1960 - Vince Clarke, British songwriter (Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and Erasure) *1961 - Pedro Romeiras, Portuguese dancer * 1961 - Tim Smith, English musician (Cardiacs) *1962 - Tom Cruise, American actor * 1962 - Hunter Tylo, American actress * 1962 - Thomas Gibson, American actor *1964 - Joanne Harris, British author * 1964 - Yeardley Smith, French-born American actress *1965 - Shinya Hashimoto, Japanese wrestler (d. 2005) * 1965 - Connie Nielsen, Danish actress *1966 - Moises Alou, Dominican baseball player *1966 - Sandra Lee, American television host and cookbook author *1969 - Kevin Hearn, Canadian musician (Barenaked Ladies) *1970 - Teemu Selänne, Finnish ice hockey player * 1970 - Shawnee Smith, American actress * 1970 - Serhiy Honchar, Ukrainian cyclist *1973 - Johnny Terris, Canadian-born actor and director * 1973 - Patrick Wilson, American actor * 1973 - Emma Cunniffe, British actress *1976 - Andrea Barber, American actress * 1976 - Wanderlei Silva, Brazilian mixed martial artist * 1976 - Wade Belak, Canadian ice hockey player *1979 - Ludivine Sagnier, French actress * 1979 - Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Greek footballer *1980 - Roland Mark Schoeman, South African swimmer * 1980 - Kevin Boyle, American basketballer *1982 - Kanika, Indian actress *1984 - Corey Sevier, Canadian actor *1987 - Sebastian Vettel, German racing driver *1988 - James Troisi, Australian footballer Deaths * 683 - Pope Leo II *1570 - Aonio Paleario, Italian humanist *1642 - Maria de' Medici, wife of Henry IV of France (b. 1573) *1672 - Francis Willughby, English biologist (b. 1635) *1704 - Sophia Alekseyevna, regent of Russia (b. 1657) *1749 - William Jones, Welsh mathematician (b. 1675) *1778 - Anna Maria Walburga Mozart née Pertl, mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b. 1720) *1790 - Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle, French chemist (b. 1736) *1795 - Louis-Georges de Bréquigny, French historian (b. 1714) * 1795 - Antonio de Ulloa, Spanish general and governor of Louisiana (b. 1716) *1809 - Joseph Quesnel, French Canadian composer, poet and playwright (b. 1746) *1858 - Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov, Russian painter (b. 1806) *1863 - George Hull Ward, American general (b. 1826) *1904 - Theodor Herzl, Austrian Zionist (b. 1860) * 1904 - Edouard Beaupré, Canadian giant and strongman (b. 1881) *1914 - Joseph Chamberlain, British politician (b. 1836) *1916 - Hetty Green, American businesswoman (b. 1834) *1918 - Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire (b. 1844) *1933 - Hipólito Yrigoyen, President of Argentina (b. 1852) *1935 - André Citroën, French automobile pioneer (b. 1878) *1942 - Louis Franchet d'Espèrey, French general (b. 1856) *1954 - Siegfried Handloser, German physician (b. 1895) *1957 - Dolf Luque, baseball player (b. 1890) *1969 - Brian Jones, English musician (The Rolling Stones) (drowned) (b. 1942) *1971 - Jim Morrison, American singer (The Doors) (b. 1943) *1977 - Alexander M. Volkov, Russian novelist and mathematician (b. 1891) *1978 - James Daly, American actor (b. 1918) *1979 - Louis Durey, French composer (b. 1888) *1981 - Ross Martin, Polish-American actor (b. 1920) *1985 - Frank Selke, Canadian ice hockey manager (b. 1893) *1986 - Rudy Vallee, American singer (b. 1901) *1989 - Jim Backus, American actor (b. 1913) *1993 - Joe DeRita, American actor and comedian (b. 1909) * 1993 - Don Drysdale, baseball player (b. 1936) *1994 - Lew Hoad, Australian tennis player (b. 1934) *1995 - Pancho Gonzales, American tennis player (b. 1928) * 1995 - Eddie Mazur, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1929) *1998 - Danielle Bunten Berry, American software developer (b. 1949) *1999 - Mark Sandman, American musician (b. 1952) *2000 - Kemal Sunal, Turkish actor (b. 1944) *2001 - Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (b. 1931) * 2001 - Johnny Russell, American country singer and songwriter (b. 1940) *2003 - Gaetano Alibrandi, Papal diplomat (b. 1914) *2004 - Andrian Nikolayev, cosmonaut (b. 1929) *2005 - Alberto Lattuada, Italian film director (b. 1914) * 2005 - Gaylord Nelson, U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (b. 1916) *2006 - Joseph Goguen, American computer scientist (b. 1941) * 2006 - Benjamin Hendrickson, American actor (b. 1950) *2007 - Alice Timander, Swedish dentist (b. 1915) * 2007 - Boots Randolph, American saxophonist (b. 1927) Holidays and observances * Start of the Dog Days * Independence Day in Belarus (when German forces lost Belarus to the Red Army in 1944) Liturgical Feast days * Aaron and Julius